The following Resource Center services will continue to be offered this year:

Some time within the next month we hope to be sending you an updated Patron Packet containing our revised policies, procedures and forms. When you receive your new packet, we encourage you to discard any outdated forms you may have and copy the contents of the packet as needed in order to have updated forms on hand at the various locations at which you work.

Meanwhile, if you need patron registration forms, textbook and library materials request forms or Federal Quota forms, please let us know and we'll be glad to e-mail, fax or snail them to you.

NYSSB has begun the major reconstruction of our main education building, Severne Hall. This will include a fully accessible entrance with a much larger elevator, specially designed accessible classrooms and an updated Student Assistive Technology Center (SATC), along with central air conditioning.

Please feel free to order whatever students need, both at school and at home, and we will do our best to provide you with whatever is available. We will do whatever is within our power to assist you and we wish you all a very successful school year!

Textbooks in Accessible Formats for NYS Students with 504 Plans Resource Center staff assist in obtaining braille and large print text for students as noted in their Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s) or 504 plans. Because our funding is designated for students with identified disabilities, we cannot purchase materials for students with 504 plans, nor can we provide second copies of these materials to those students. If the materials provided to a student with a 504 plan are needed by a student with an identified disability, we may need to recall those materials for that purpose.

Recently APH listed 130 ATIC textbook titles on the APH File Repository for download. These braille-ready files can now be downloaded at the local level, bound and delivered to students in a fraction of the time.

Since ATIC (Accessible Textbooks Initiative and Collaboration) is known for producing complex materials such as algebra, trigonometry, geometry, physics, and anatomy, you may wonder what good it would be to have only the braille for such highly graphical textbooks? APH has the answer! You can now download the braille ready file and purchase the graphics for each of the listed books. The graphics will be produced at APH and shipped to you ready to bind with the braille!

Collaborative Assessment: Working with Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, Including Those with Additional Disabilities is a new book from AFB Press edited by Stephen A. Goodman and Stuart H. Wittenstein. To order, call (800) 232-3044.

On June 25, 2003 the Senate voted 20-0 in favor of S.1248, the Senate's bipartisan version of the IDEA reauthorization. Key points:

• Funding is to be mandatory, not discretionary
• Includes provision of alternate assessments
• Includes language ensuring the distinction of orientation and mobility services from travel training (current federal regulations confuse O&M and travel training and the populations of students they serve).
• Section 664 supports training of personnel such as TVIs, O&M Specialists and Braille Transcribers (see MS Word Section V link)
• Section 675 includes all critical components of the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act, especially the creation of a national instructional materials accessibility standard and national instructional materials access center (a provision absent from the House version)
• Includes the Expanded Core Curriculum of the National Agenda among the central services to be considered in IEPs for children who are blind or visually impaired
• Eliminates requirements for functional behavior assessment

This report from the Coalition for Community Schools demonstrates that community schools fulfill five conditions necessary for student success:

• a strong core instructional program
• motivated and engaged learners
• meeting the basic needs of young people and their families
• effective collaboration among parents, families and school staff
• community engagement.

It argues that community schools have three advantages over traditional schools:

• They garner community resources to reduce non-academic demands on school staff.
• They provide learning opportunities that develop both academic and non-academic competencies (social, emotional and personal).
• They build social capital that disadvantaged students and communities need.

The report outlines an action agenda to create more community schools that focuses on:

NYSSB Highlights

Another popular activity enjoyed by the students in the Week Long and Weekend outreach programs is a discussion with successful adults who share their experiences about overcoming the hurdles that blindness may have caused in their lives. Students are challenged to improve adaptive techniques for all life skills and recreational activities, as well as learning to be stronger self-advocates throughout their education years. They are encouraged to make not ONE career goal but to choose a "Plan B" in case their primary career choice doesn't turn out to be what they expected.

A group of collaborating organizations and universities is looking for kindergarten children to enroll in the first study of young children who read braille. This study seeks to learn if there are differences in the reading, writing, and spelling abilities of young readers who initially learn the alphabetic-braille code or the contracted-braille code.

If you know of a young child who will be in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten in 2003 or 2004 and you would like more information about this study, please contact Dr. Anne Corn, Box 328 Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203

Phone: 615-322-2249 (8 – 4:30 CST) or e-mail: Anne.Corn@Vanderbilt.edu.

Thanks in part to the efforts of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, JAWS for Windows users from across the country have the opportunity to work as blood donor recruiters. The SCCB Telecommunication Center is planning on training blind and visually impaired applicants with basic JAWS skills beginning in September. Candidates who successfully complete the program are guaranteed job offers. These are competitive jobs with good wages, benefits and performance bonuses.

The Red Cross has 4,000 jobs around the country and it is expecting some higher than usual turnover soon because of some changes. Similar successful projects have already placed blind people in telecommunications positions with the ANC Rental Corporation, the owners of Alamo and National Car Rentals. It also works with Drivers Choice Insurance Company and Wells Fargo Mortgage Company.

The 12-week training program is presented in three phases: classroom training, hands-on training and working with live calls. South Carolina residents receive rooms and meals at the rehabilitation center on campus. For out of state trainees, the SCCB provides assistance in locating off-campus housing, and meals. For additional information about these career opportunities for JAWS users, contact Ed Bible at (803) 898-8786.

November 2 - 4, 2003 > NYSAER 18th Annual Fall Conference, "Together EnVISIONing Our Future", Gideon Putnam Hotel, Saratoga Springs, NY. Contact Cynthia Barker (518) 793-6640, e-mail ccbarker@adelphia.net or visit www.nysaer.org

November 7-9, 2003 > NFB NY State Convention, Holiday Inn Downtown, Buffalo, NY. Contact Carl Jacobsen (718) 567-7821 or nfbnys@aol.com.

December 5-6, 2003 > Abacus Workshop for Professionals, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA. Beth Caruso (617) 972-7432 outreach@perkins.org.

December 13-16, 2003 > AER Division 9 O&M Conference, New Orleans. Lynn Gautreaux or George Tully oandm@lsvi.org (225) 342-4754 or http://www.aerbvi.org/OandM/news.htm#omconference.

Math Window includes a framed magnetic board with symbols in Braille and in print, so students who are blind can easily arrange the numbers and math symbols ($69.75 for the basic kit). Call (724) 285-5428, or visit www.mathwindow.com.

Parent and Family Web Resources for Students with Visual Impairments is an edited version of Lots of Links, specifically designed for families. Call (585) 343-5384 ext. 1427 or e-mail jpiscite@mail.nysed.gov to receive your copy!

Hey, Kids! Check out the Helen Keller Kids Museum on the AFB Braille Bug web site: http://www.afb.org/braillebug/hkmuseum.asp

Share the Vision! is published quarterly by the New York State School for the Blind (NYSSB). Subscription is free and articles and suggestions are always welcome. Archived issues of the newsletter are found at www.vesid.nysed.gov/lsn/resourcetoolbox.htm.

Judi Piscitello (585) 343-5384, ext. 1427
E-mail jpiscite@mail.nysed.gov.
FAX: (585) 344-7026
NYS School for the Blind
2A Richmond Avenue
Batavia, New York 14020

In providing Share the Vision! to its readers, the School for the Blind does not endorse any products or services to which the newsletter refers. The State Education Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its educational programs, services, and activities.

Portions of this publication can be made available in a variety of formats, including braille, large print, or audiotape, upon request. Inquiries concerning this policy of nondiscrimination should be referred to the Department’s Office for Diversity, Ethics, and Access, Room 530, Education Building, Albany, NY 12234.